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With AI Getting Better at Cognitive Abilities, Humans Will Have Even Fewer Jobs (koreaherald.com)
An anonymous reader writes: It is no secret that machines have come to largely replace physical labor, and computers surpass human beings in processing data. But in the future, the development of artificial intelligence may render humans obsolete even in the realm of emotional intelligence (warning: annoying popup adverts), according to Yuval Harari, a renowned professor of history. Harari said:AI today is able to diagnose your personality and emotional state by looking at your face and recognizing tiny muscle movements. It can tell whether you are tired, excited, angry, joyful, in love ... it can tell these things even though AI itself doesn't feel anger or love. In the future, therefore, AI could drive humans out of the job market and make many humans completely useless, from an economic perspective in areas where human interaction was previously considered crucial. Humans only have two basic abilities -- physical and cognitive. When machines replaced us in physical abilities, we moved on to jobs that require cognitive abilities. ... If AI becomes better than us in that, there is no third field humans can move to.
The mechanization of agriculture didn't result in 76% unemployment, it freed people to do other work.
You need to study history, because not only it did result in high unemployment for a generation or so, the transition itself was much more gradual. Other work might not arrive in time to save all the displaced workers from poverty.
As I understand it, this was not originally written into the matrix and was tacked on by some PHB. I have read previously that they needed the human brain power in order to create and manage the entire world. (too much processing to be done or somesuch). Obviously not a big deal in life, but just an alternative thought.
Might not be much of a change for some people. We're already moving towards a society where a lot of people will be displaced from their jobs and due to the highly specialized nature of their work as well as a decrease in menial labor, it may not be possible for them to do much of anything for a while. For some people we've already reached that point.
The only positive side is that the automation is more efficient so even as we do replace someone, we theoretically have the resources for them to keep living without doing any additional work, but the reality is it never works out like that.
It requires at least a functional understanding of pressure, hydraulics, gravity, some understanding of metallurgy (although Pex pipe is making sweating fittings rarer), electrical installation (for electric hot water heaters), as well as many plumbers also being gas fitters, so a different, though related set of principles surrounding fluid flow, pressure, and so forth.
Having done my own plumbing, at least rough plumbing (I stop where one has to actually cut a hole in a brand new $500 acrylic tub/shower), I found it reasonably challenging. But plumbing, of course, isn't just about home installations, and many plumbers and gasfitters also work in industrial settings.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
And we will think of plenty of new things for these "useless" humans to do.
There already is.
The trouble is that their activities aren't considered valuable under our economic system.
We live in a consumer based economic system and unless you can find a fit in this system, you're a misfit. You're working in a dead end, part time, low paying service job - even though you might be a brilliant artist and would be great after you die.
Although we value ancient novelists and writers and artists, when they were alive, most were dirt poor - yet their works go for millions after they are dead.
The engineer who is designing that latest media consumption device gets paid quite well and the entrepreneur who figures out how to distract us from our innate human creativity to spend on social media is rewarded with almost instant billions.
I see a future where AI does our work, an extremely small minority of engineers designing it, and the rest of us being distracted by social media and other garbage while we get our base pay.
Having a purpose is necessary for humanity and right now, work is it.
As usual, society and economic systems aren't changing fast enough in response to technology.
I don't. Not in American society, anyway.
We've increased our productivity levels exponentially since the 1970s, but very little of that benefit went to people below the top 10%. The common person is working more hours and being more productive than ever before, and even so he/she is more of a wage slave than any time in modern era.
Unless some of the basic tenets of US society change the benefits of even MORE per-person productivity are just going to keep accruing at the top. That sounds hopeless, but it is possible. Our corporate worshipping culture as we know it today only started to form in the mid-1970s.
The way I explain it is this: Imagine how dumb the average person is, and realize that 1/2 the people aren't actually that smart.
Its like all those Anti-Trump Supporters protesting him, when interviewed can't actually articulate the lines they are parroting.
TV Reporter: Why are you here? /crickets .... there are thousands of examples! /morecrickets ... You're just a hater that hates! ... walks off.
Protester: We're protesting Trump! Bernie 2016 yeah!
TV Reporter: Why are you protesting Trump?
Protester: He is a racist, bigot, homophobic, woman hater, that's why!
TV Reporter: Can you give me an example of one of those?
Protester:
TV Reporter: Sure, but can you name just one?
Protester:
I've seen plenty of interviews of protesters lately and they all go very similar to this. They have NO idea what they are protesting, just that their leaders are telling them to, so the just show up and protest, without a clue. It is really sad.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.